PMID- 21960044 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE VI - 241 IP - 1 TI - Comparison of embryonic expression within multigene families using the FlyExpress discovery platform reveals more spatial than temporal divergence. PG - 150-60 CI - Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural PL - United States TA - Dev Dyn JT - Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists JID - 9201927 IS - 1097-0177 (Electronic) LID - 10.1002/dvdy.22749 [doi] FAU - Konikoff, Charlotte E AU - Konikoff CE AD - School of Life Sciences and Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics in the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. FAU - Karr, Timothy L AU - Karr TL FAU - McCutchan, Michael AU - McCutchan M FAU - Newfeld, Stuart J AU - Newfeld SJ FAU - Kumar, Sudhir AU - Kumar S IS - 1058-8388 (Linking) RN - 0 (Drosophila Proteins) SB - IM MH - Animals MH - Computational Biology/instrumentation/*methods MH - Databases, Factual MH - Drosophila/*embryology/*genetics MH - Drosophila Proteins/genetics/metabolism MH - *Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental MH - *Multigene Family PMC - PMC3241901 DCOM- 20120509 LR - 20211020 DP - 2012 Jan DEP - 20110929 AB - BACKGROUND: Overlaps in spatial patterns of gene expression are frequently an initial clue to genetic interactions during embryonic development. However, manual inspection of images requires considerable time and resources impeding the discovery of important interactions because tens of thousands of images exist. The FlyExpress discovery platform was developed to facilitate data-driven comparative analysis of expression pattern images from Drosophila embryos. RESULTS: An image-based search of the BDGP and Fly-FISH datasets conducted in FlyExpress yields fewer but more precise results than text-based searching when the specific goal is to find genes with overlapping expression patterns. We also provide an example of a FlyExpress contribution to scientific discovery: an analysis of gene expression patterns for multigene family members revealed that spatial divergence is far more frequent than temporal divergence, especially after the maternal to zygotic transition. This discovery provides a new clue to molecular mechanisms whereby duplicated genes acquire novel functions. CONCLUSIONS: The application of FlyExpress to understanding the process by which new genes acquire novel functions is just one of a myriad of ways in which it can contribute to our understanding of developmental and evolutionary biology. This resource has many other potential applications, limited only by the investigator's imagination.